Indian police arrest minister over 'fake' law degree

Jitendra Singh Tomar, on the extreme right of the picture, waves to Aam Aadmi supporters alongside fellow leaders of the party after it won power in Delhi in February. Photograph: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

Agence France-Presse in Delhi-Tuesday 9 June 2015

Jitendra Singh Tomar, a Delhi state minister, faces conspiracy, cheating and forgery charges, but his party claims he has been targeted by the ruling BJP

Indian police say they arrested a minister in the Delhi state government on suspicion of faking his law degree, sparking accusations of political interference by the country’s ruling party.

Jitendra Singh Tomar, who holds a number of portfolios in the Delhi government including justice, appeared in court on Tuesday to be formally charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.

A Delhi police spokesman, Rajan Bhagat, said Tomar, who denies the charges, was arrested following a complaint from the Bar Council of Delhi, which regulates lawyers in the capital.

“Based on the investigations and prima facie evidence, a case was filed against Tomar and he was arrested for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy,” he said.

The arrest has exposed a power struggle between the Delhi government led by the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi party (AAP) and India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which lost elections in India’s capital earlier this year.

Sanjay Singh, a senior AAP leader, claimed Tomar’s arrest was part of the national government’s “pressure tactics”. The federal government of Narendra Modicontrols the Delhi police force as well as some of the city’s bureaucracy.